The thing about Cookie Monster is, you know what he’s all about. Kermit seems perpetually uncomfortable with being famous and beset by self doubt; Grover is an idiot, Fozzie Bear’s a failure, Miss Piggy is a bimbo. Oscar the Grouch is, well, a grouch, and Ernie and Bert, while entertaining together, are individually the sort of person you’d think was an asshole; Ernie’s an inconsiderate slob, and Bert is a twit. I like Animal but he’s basically just a drug fiend, and Big Bird and Elmo are just little kids.
But Cookie Monster’s honest and forthright. Cookie Monster is interested in one thing; eating. Specifically, cookies. You know where Cookie Monster stands on the issues; he is unambigously, unapologetically, pro-cookie. Cookie Monster is “Yes” on the cookie question.
Actually, The Count is pretty good too, you sure know what he’s all about. But Cookie Monster gets funnier lines, so he’s cooler.
These days, the agenda-setting goons at Sesame Street are forcing him to advocate a well-balanced, nutritious diet, but if you look deep into his googly eyes, you can still tell he doesn’t mean it. It’s all about the cookies and it always will be.
It was after Cookie Monster appeared on The Colbert Report last week that I realized the greatness of Cookie Monster- combined with some of the links in this thread. For what you would think would be a one-note character based on his name and personality, he’s actually a very well-developed character. He has many emotions- sure, they all involve cookies, but we can all relate to his love of cookies and attempts to get himself to not eat the Letter of the Day.
Mr. Monster has been advocating this stance since 1974, although if you look at this PSA from this year, you’ll see he prefers dessert to all other meals.
Cookie Monster does indeed rock. But I have always loved Oscar the Grouch more, and as far as sheer coolness goes, Animal is the man. I also find myself doing Count impressions all the time. “One! One paperclip! Ah ah aaaah!” Oh yeah, I’m wierd. Did you just notice?
I saw the guy who designed Big Bird’s original Costume died today, somehow that earned a 5" by 8" article in my newspapers obituaries
On the cookies monster part:
Colbert: “Cookie monster did you eat my Peabody?”
Cookie Monster: “Me not know where your Peabody go… what’s that? Me think I hear Elmo honking the horn. Bye!”
Actually, Fozzie Bear was my childhood inspiration to become a standup comedian. I even ended all my jokes with Wokka-wokka. Some people had Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce or the recently departed George Carlin, I had Fozzie.
Count von Count rules. I got a Count puppet for Christmas one year, and went around counting things and laughing maniacally until my parents took it away from me again. I totally blame my current catastrophic innumeracy disorder on that traumatic childhood incident.
My brother got a Bert puppet that year. What the hell can you do with a Bert puppet? Nothing but be uptight and crabby and act out a barely repressed sexual attraction to pigeons. Needless to say, my parents eventually regretted that purchase too.
